


Rose and Pearl vs The World

by RankPup8



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, First Meeting, Gen, Pre-Canon, Rebellion, Rose is Tired, but also you go, let her rest, pearl's fucked, what are you doing this is illegal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 16:24:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11361153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RankPup8/pseuds/RankPup8
Summary: After the Viceroy of The Earth Colony is found shattered in her palace, a Rose Quartz is appointed to keep the Colony under control. She's barely managing, but things seem to be working, until one of her subordinates brings back a runaway pearl.--One of many ways Rose and Pearl could've met.





	1. Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You don't need to read the notes until the end, they're just a little bit of extra info, but the story itself works without them (if I could link them I would, though)

She had a million things to do. For days Rose Quartz had been trapped inside the Governor’s Palace, reading complaints of dozens of upper class gems about how their shipment from X54 hadn’t arrived yet, how their personal guards had been missing for days, how her new house hadn’t been finished yet, and wasn’t it Rose’s job to oversee that everything was in order? Their issues were more important than whatever she was doing holed up inside the Palace. Rose wrote back to all of them without really paying attention to what she was answering. She needed those clods to shut up, couldn’t they see there was a crisis going on? White Spinel had been murdered! The viceroy of Pink Diamond’s colony had been shattered just a few days ago, and her temporal replacement had too many things to handle at once without adding all the petty problems those gems had. There was trading to oversee, soldiers to train, buildings and monuments that had been in the middle of construction that couldn’t continue without the necessary funding. Not to mention the rise of crime in the whole solar system now that there was no one leading it. A single gem could only handle so many things at once, even a Captain of the Guard had her limits.

The screen to her left lit up, another message. Ever since the incident Rose had been stationed in the Viceroy’s office by herself. She sat on a desk with three wide screens surrounding her and typing non-stop to finish all the paper work Spinel had left behind.

She had been the first to find out. She had gone to the palace to do her required weekly report of the happenings of the colony to her superior but when she knocked on the door no pearl had answered. After a while she dared enter the palace uninvited, and she found nobody inside. She walked around growing more anxious as the minutes passed until she reached Spinel’s personal quarters and got inside.

Gem shards littered the floor. White as snow. Instantly, Rose figured out what happened. So, she reported the incident directly to Pink Diamond, the next gem in the hierarchy. Well, Pink Diamond’s Pearl.  She received orders to look after the colony until a new Viceroy was appointed and she did, despite her complete lack of knowledge on how to run a colony.

She finished typing an answer to the onyx that wanted to know what was she supposed to do now that the space port had been closed. No one was allowed in or out of the colony until the new Viceroy arrived. As soon as Rose hit send another three messages appeared on the screen in front of her. She hadn’t been made for this…

Someone knocked on her door. Rose jumped from her place in the desk and let the gem in herself, thankful for a distraction.

A citrine was standing outside.

“Oh! Hello Rose, I mean,” she saluted, “Captain.”

“Citrine, you know you don’t have to salute like that.”

“Yeah, but you’re kinda the viceroy right now so…”

Rose sighed. “Don’t remind me, I have so much to do. You know, a little help would be appreciated.”

“Yeah… I, er, we don’t have permission to read all those important documents and stuff, yeah? I’d totally help you otherwise, you know it.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” Rose couldn’t blame her, she wouldn’t had helped herself either. “Anyway, what do you need?”

“Right.” Citrine held up an oval shaped gem. A pearl. “We found this pearl wandering the streets by herself, when we asked where was her owner she tried to run so we had to poof her. I have no idea what she was doing so I brought her here, maybe you’ve received a message from someone missing a pearl or something.”

A pearl? Great, must belong to one of the complainers, one less problem for Rose. “I haven’t seen a message asking for a pearl yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it arrived soon.” Rose took the gem from Citrine’s hand. “Thank you for the report, now go back to your post, new orders could arrive at any moment.”

Citrine groaned. “But we haven’t had a break in days! Biggs’ going crazy with all the work and me too, to be honest. C’mon, give us a break!”

“Hey, if I don’t get a break no-one does. Am I the only one that sees the trouble we’re in? A gem was shattered, Citrine! And she was the most important gem in the colony too, there’s a crisis going on and we haven’t even found the shatterers… wait, wasn’t it your job to figure that out?”

“Eh…”

“Yes, I had assigned a citrine and a jasper to find the criminals. Well, have you made any progress?”

“We have made progress! We know the criminals aren’t in this… area…”

Oh, why did she bother? They had no clue as to what had happened, she couldn’t expect these quartzes to do the job of detectives.

“Just, go back to you post, okay? Try to figure something out, I’ll probably send you a message later.”

Citrine seemed relieved. “Thanks Rose, I’ll see you later.” Citrine saluted once more - although this time she wasn’t taking it as seriously – and turned to leave. Rose shook her head and started to close the door.

“Hey Rose! One last thing, before I forget!” Citrine said, “We don’t really have any idea as to who was the killer, but Biggs had a hunch: maybe it was the black market.”

Oh, that… actually makes some sense, Rose thought, there hasn’t been any sign of the black market on Earth yet, but they are known to target small and new colonies… and Spinel’s pearl was missing as well. She wondered if this was her? Maybe she can tell them more.

“Yeah,” she said aloud, “it could have been. Thank Biggs for that idea.”

“I will. See you Rose!”

“Goodbye Citrine.”

She closed the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Black market gems... a really interesting concept that I read originally in another fanfic about pearls... think it was Little Rebellions by CompletelyDifferent (it's a really good story, btw)


	2. Part 2

Rose sighed, back to work. She walked slowly to the desk, trying to make as much time as possible before she had to return to the paperwork, though she knew it wouldn’t make a difference. 

But as soon as she attempted to sit again the gem in her hand started glowing. Startled, she dropped it and watched as the pearl reformed. Rose had watched hundreds of gems reform before, she liked seeing them cycle through their past forms as they chose a new one, so she was a little surprised when this one went only through one.[1] Though Rose guessed it made sense, all the other gems she had seen reform had been soldiers, of course other types of gems wouldn’t have been poofed as often. After a few seconds, the pearl settled on a new form, or perhaps the same one as before, Rose couldn’t know. 

The pearl stopped glowing. As soon as she opened her eyes she frantically looked around, seeming afraid and lost. Rose may have been a young gem, barely a couple of centuries old, but she had seen many pearls look like that, and not necessarily after reformation. She always felt bad for them, she couldn’t imagine living her life being so weak, terrified of everyone around her.

So, she waited until the pearl calmed down. When the smaller gem figured out she wasn’t alone she jumped a few feet back, surprised that there was company. She was breathing hard, her eyes wide open, observing Rose’s every move. She did not speak. 

“Hello, Pearl.” Rose spoke softly. “Don’t worry, you’re safe here.”

The pearl didn’t answer. Rose wasn’t sure what to do, pearls were always quiet, but usually they relayed messages and quickly left so Rose didn’t have to bother with small talk. Did pearls even had conversations with other gems? 

“You were brought here by Citrine.” Oh, right. “I’m really sorry about the rough treatment, she probably didn’t mean to be so violent with you, I hope you are okay.”

Silence.

“Um, she said you were by yourself? That you tried to run away? Why was that?”

The pearl shook her head. Finally, some communication, except that this wasn’t useful to Rose. 

“Okay, you’ve probably been through a lot. Let me ask you some questions, are you the pearl that belonged to Spinel?”

The pearl didn’t answer, but when the name of the Viceroy left Rose’s mouth she took a step back and stood a little straighter. Rose guessed she looked similar enough to Spinel, white with a black top, her gem in the middle of her forehead.[2] She had seen a pearl in the palace before, and she looked pretty much the same from what Rose could remember, except for the hair, which used to be white but now was a light peach. 

“Alright, I’ll take that as a yes… it is a yes, right? We thought that you were stolen by criminals, the ones that shattered your master, but it seems you managed to escape. I’m glad you’re fine.”

The pearl didn’t look as glad. Again her eyes drifted for a moment, looking around the room. Did she not know where she was?

“We are at the Governor’s Palace. I was wondering if you had any idea as to who murdered Spinel, how they looked, if they had weapons of some kind, anything that could help us with their capture.”

No answer. Did she not speak?

Rose sighed. “Can you at least tell me why you tried to run away? I know Citrine and Biggs can be a little loud but there was no reason to run.”

She could have looked for help, she could’ve…

“Why… why did you run? Why not come to the guard when you escaped? We could’ve helped you, unless…”

Oh.

“Was it… you? Did you shatter Spinel?”

The pearl shook her head but Rose knew she was unto something. “Yeah, why would black market gems attack the most powerful gem in the solar system when there’s so many others? And why would they leave the shards behind? What a sloppy job.”

For a second the two gems stared at each other in silence. And then the pearl bolted for the door. It took Rose a moment to realize what was happening but she ran to block the entrance. Her shield materialized in her hand and she rammed the smaller gem, throwing her across the room. The pearl slammed on the opposite wall and fell with a thud. She stood up as quickly as she could, leaning against the wall.

It was her! This was the gem that had caused so much trouble in the past days. A pearl!

“Do you have any idea of what you’ve done? I have been drowning in paperwork, the whole colony is in chaos, Pink Diamond herself has been called to intervene because the viceroy of her first colony was shattered! And all because of one pearl. Why? Why would you do this?! Well?”

Now the pearl had to answer, she had been found and Rose would make damn sure she didn’t get away this time.

Slowly, the pearl spoke. “I had no choice.”

_ What?  _ “What do you mean?”

“It was either her or me. She… she went mad. Throwing things, screaming, kicking. Threatening. And I… after all these years of… of threading on the edge of a knife where even the smallest mistake would mean my death, like so many others before me… I wasn’t about to go like that. So, I defended myself, like any other gem would. It was either her or me, I had no choice.”

As she talked her words picked speed and Rose grew in disbelief. This gem, this  _ pearl _ was admitting to murder right before her eyes. And yet…

“She was going to shatter you…” Rose muttered. Oh, stars, what a mess. What was she supposed to do? This had  _ not _ been part of her training. She guessed she had to make a report and send it to Pink Diamond. A trial was in order, and any other the gem would be granted a lawyer and a place in court. But this was a pearl, would they even bother? Was she just going to be shattered or harvested? It didn’t seem right, that is, if the pearl was saying the truth. But looking at her Rose could tell she wasn’t lying. 

As the second passed the pearl looked more defeated, lowering her guard, staring at the floor. She knew what was coming. 

Rose was torn. She knew what was the right thing to do… well, no, she knew what was the  _ legal  _ thing to do, what she was supposed to do, but the right thing… that was trickier. Could she really let a gem be shattered for defending herself? Even a pearl? 

“Okay. Okay, okay, okay. I see. So, it  _ was _ the black-market gems. They left a mess in the Palace, stole a pearl and escaped before we even knew what happened.” She looked at Pearl right in the eye. “No witnesses.”

To say Pearl was surprised was an understatement. Rose herself couldn’t believe what she was saying. But it was done, no turning back. 

“Get out of here.”

“What?”

“Get out, I don’t want to see you near the Palace ever again. In fact, I don’t want to see you in  _ this city  _ ever again, do you hear?”

“But, aren’t you-”

“ _ I’m letting you go.  _ Oh, my Diamond, I can believe this as much as you, okay? But I’m not getting a gem killed for standing up for herself, even if it ended up in a shattering…”

Rose Quartz was probably the dumbest gem Rose had ever known. 

“Leave now, there should be a warp pad beneath the palace, you should know where. Just, go as far away from here as you can.”

Pearl was gaping at her. “But- but I don’t know where to go!”

Eh… “Kindergarten. Prime Kindergarten. Go north from there, there should be a forest, no one will find you there. Probably.”

Both gems had no idea what was happening. But Pearl soon recovered from the shock and quickly walked towards the exit (still keeping a distance from Rose). 

She stopped at the door. “I don’t know… Thank you.” She looked at Rose. “Really.”

Rose smiled nervously. “Yeah, don’t mention it. I mean that, don’t ever tell anyone what happened.”

Pear nodded and walked outside the office.

Both gems sighed heavily, not being able to believe what happened. 

They hoped they had made the right choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Rose doesn't know this but it is actually unsual for a pearl to not have many past forms, specially for one of Pearl's age. 
> 
> [2] Think of that one original concept art for Pearl's first form the crewniverse released once. I'll link it when I find it. 
> 
> It has always been my headcanon that while Rose started the Rebellion, it was Pearl who inpired her to take a stand, even if Pearl didn't mean it. 
> 
> "[...] she couldn’t imagine living her life being so weak, terrified of everyone around her." She really doesn't know Pearl, weak is the last word I would use to describe her.

**Author's Note:**

> This is low-key inspired by les miserables, after this Pearl is probably gonna have a Valjean's Soliloquy moment. Also, I'm basing gem hierarchy on what little I remember of history class about New Spain. 
> 
> I have no idea how these two could've met, this isn't even a theory, just an idea that I had at midnight one day.
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> [this is also on tumblr @ rankpup8m.tumblr.com btw]


End file.
